Joshua Rolle/Animated Universe
Joshua was born the son of Howard Ocasio who was an eccentric industrial genius, inventor, and businessman, founding Stark Industries. However Howard became a genetics researcher and figured out how to mutate human DNA so that the body can heal quickly from an injury or wound. He wanted to use his research to recreate supersoldiers for the U.S. Army, and ultimately make someone close to his late friend Steve Rogers. However Howard was denied permission to do it, so he experiments on himself. Once his woman gives birth to their first son Elijah, David realizes his mutant DNA has been passed on and attempts to find a cure for his son's condition. 4 years later the government, represented by a then-Lieutenant Colonel "Thunderbolt" Ross, shuts down his research after learning of his dangerous experiments. Howard, in a fit of rage, causes a massive explosion of the facilities' gamma reactor, and attempts to kill his young sons, accidentally killing his lover when she interferes. Howard is then put into a mental hospital, while the 4-year-old Elijah and 1-year-old Joshua are sent into foster care and they are adopted separately. Joshua is adopted by an acrobatic family in Haley's Circus. Joshua and his parents ADOPTIVE PARENTS performed nightly with their death defying high wire acts. When the circus came to Gotham City, the gangster, Tony Zucco tried to extort protection money out of the owner, but he refused to cooperate. In retaliation, Zucco sabotaged their high-wire trapeze act, staging an "accident" that ended in the death of Joshua 's parents. Bobby Stewart , who helped to get the circus to town, was in the audience and witnessed these events unfold. Stewart arranged with Commissioner Gordon of the Police Department to become the 10-year-old' boy's legal guardian. However, in the rather large and emptyStewart Manor, Joshua became more and more detached. Alfred Pennyworth brought this to Stewart 's attention, who was in his fledgling years as Blackman, and had little time to spend with Joshua . Eventually, Joshua went out on his own and tracked down Zucco but was caught. Blackman saved Joshua and took him back to the Batcave, where he revealed his secret to Joshua . After personally training Grayson, Stewart allowed him to become his partner, Robin. Joshua , apprently worked with Blackman consistently well into his years COLLEGE YEARS . Thereafter, he became Blackman's semi-regular partner continuing to work with Blackman on a limited basis but, also dividing his time between crimefighting and college. Nine years after his parent's deaths, Tony Zucco resurfaced in Gotham City, putting Robin to the test. Blackman forbade Robin from going after him. Robin promptly disobeyed and tracked Zucco on his own. He finally found Zucco, but, Robin ultimately refused to kill Zucco and turned him over to the authorities. While Joshua had thought that Bobby was simply cold hearted; Bobby got surprisingly emotional and he admitted that he didn't want Robin going after Zucco for fear of Robin being hurt or killed as a result. However, this would not be the last time Blackman and Robin disagreed with each other. After graduating Gotham State University with highest honors, Grayson decided it was time for a change. A trust fund set up by the circus would keep him afloat indefinitely. The last straw was Grayson discovering that Stewart knew Barbara Gordon, his girlfriend, was Batgirl, and never told him. Grayson relinquished the mantle of Robin and left Gotham to travel the world and find himself. While exploring Jump City (a city close to Gotham) with his own version of the Robin suit he met up with Beast Boy, Cyborg, and Raven when Starfire came to Earth and started destroying the city. After a brief yet fierce confrontation where even the Boy Wonder appeared to meet his match, Robin helped Starfire get free from her chains. She then kissed him to learn English. Robin and the others teamed up to find her and later fought the aliens who came to find and imprison Starfire. Shortly after defeating them, Robin gave the others communicators and later created the Teen Titans and became the leader. With his fellow Teen Titans, self-appointed protectors of Jump City, Robin encountered Slade, the mastermind villain who is Robin's arch rival, responsible for the majority of the villains the Titans clashed with during this time, including the H.I.V.E. andThunder and Lightning. To infiltrate Slade and learn his plans, Robin became his alter- ego, Red X, and tried to make a deal with Slade. However, Slade outsmarted Robin and discovered his true identity. Later, Slade made Robin his apprentice, threatening to "annihilate" Robin's friends with nanoscopic probes, which have been injected into them unknowingly while they were diverted, if Robin refused. Having no choice, Robin joined Slade and committed many crimes in his favor, until finally he injected himself with the nanites and threatened Slade with the fact that if he didn't deactivate them, he would lose his "apprentice". The Titans then met Terra, who had the tremendous ability to control the earth. Robin was concerned about Terra joining the team, due to her unstable control over her powers. He tells Terra about it, but she runs away after mistakenly thinking Beast Boy revealed it to the others when Robin had actually realized the truth by himself. Upon her return, he gives her a chance to prove herself to the team, because she had somehow learned to fully control her powers.Titans Tower is soon attacked by Slade's mechanical worms, and thanks to Raven and Terra working together, they manage to stop Slade's plans. As a result, Robin fully trusts Terra and accepts her as an official Teen Titan. Robin begins to get competitive in a fierce card game with the Titans. Suddenly, Robin, Beast Boy, and Cyborg are transported to a tournament with other male heroes, leaving Starfire and Raven wondering where they have gone. Robin competes in a game where he has to battle the other competitors. Haven beaten everyone, Robin learns the Master of Games is just using the tournament in order to capture and steal the abilities of the heroes. Robin manages to free his friends and together, they defeat the Master of Games. After being on the team for a while, Terra betrays the Titans and deactivates the Titans Tower's security codes to allow Slade's robot commandos to enter the tower. Robin leads the Titans into a battle against Slade's robots and becomes upset that Terra has betrayed them. Not long after, Larry arrives from another dimension and helps the Titans stop Johnny Rancid after Robin's arm had been fractured while on his R- cycle chasing the villain. Slade and his new apprentice, Terra, appear and attack the Titans off-guard. It is revealed that Slade offered her control over her powers, something the Titans could never offer her, in exchange for her loyalty. Beast Boy manages to convince Robin to give Terra another chance. Robin fights Terra after she had taken down the other Titans, but hesitates when he tries to strike the final blow. Terra takes advantage of this and finishes off Robin. Luckily, Robin had survived, and regrouped with the other Titans underground, who proved to only sustain minor injuries. The Titans resurfaced and attacked Terra without mercy, catching her off guard and making them gain the upper hand. Terra asked Slade for help and he sent Plasmus, Overload, and Cinderblock (and fused them into one creature) to fight the Titans in her place while she would return to Slade's secret base. As soon as she arrived, he reprimanded Terra for not winning in her fight with the Titans and physically abused her via Terra's suit (which had been fitted with a device that allowed Slade to control her actions) to teach her a lesson. Beast Boy left the Titans to look for Terra and when he arrived at Slade's headquarters, Slade attacked him through Terra. Just as she was about to destroy him, Robin and the other Titans arrived and pleaded to her to not kill Beast Boy and to break free of Slade's control. Terra finally realized her mistakes and she fought against Slade but in all her fury, she awakened a dormant volcano. She knocked him into the molten lava and sent the evil mastermind to his doom. The Titans told her that they had to get out of the city as fast as they could before the volcano destroyed it, but Terra said she's the only one who can stop it and sacrificed herself to save Jump City by tapping into the volcano's lava flow. But, as a consequence of this action, she was turned to stone, becoming one with the earth itself. Soon after Red Xreturns, and this time it's not Robin in the suit. Instead of wanting to cause chaos and destroy the city, this Red X only wants Xenothium (a chemical that powers his suit) and to be "number one". Robin takes the blame on himself and goes out to stop X personally. Eventually he is brought back to the lair of a new villain, Professor Chang, and aids Robin with defeating him and freeing the rest of the Titans, though he doesn't take himself as an ally and escapes. A few days later Robin's obsessive personality get the better of him, as a mask trapped with some special dust make him see, hear and feel Slade, his old arch-enemy (who was supposedly killed by Terra). Though the others keep telling him that Slade isn't real, he won't listen and fights an imaginary Slade nearly to his death. While the Titans are worried that he might be going crazy, Raven enters Robin's mind (seeing the death of The Flying Graysons and Robin performing his oath before Blackman), creating a bond between them, and see that, in his head, Slade is real. Luckily, Robin managed to understand that what he's seeing is just a powerful illusion just in time to get out of it alive. A month later Robin and the Titans celebrate the fourth of July but it gets interrupted when Mad Mod takes over the city and turns it into England. While trying to stop Mad Mod, Robin is separated from the Titans and Mad Mod uses his high tech cane to drain Robin of his youth force. Mad Mod becomes young again while Robin is turned into a frail old man not strong enough to even walk. He is then held as Mod's prisoner. Eventually Starfire, Beast Boy, Raven, and Cyborg had a strategy and Beast Boy stole Mad Mod's cane giving it to Robin. Robin then uses it to reverse its aging effects turning him back to normal and Mod back to an old man. Robin destroys the high tech cane by snapping it in half; this turns the city which Mad Mod made England, back into what it used to be, Jump City. The next year Robin expresses deep concern for Raven, and is the one who most fully realizes that there is something she is concealing from the other Titans, saying that they have a bond from the events she has seen in his mind, but Raven declines to tell him initially, saying there were places in her mind one should never go. The Titans are shocked when Slade resurfaces against the Titans, but is quick to engage him, though Robin is defeated along with the other Titans. However as Robin is about to be crushed by a structure in the collapsing site, compliments of Slade, a distressed Raven taps into her inner power (or, rather, a birthday "gift" fromTrigon) and stops time itself briefly. Raven then escapes with Robin, whose efforts to hold Slade back were met with little avail, instead sustaining great harm at his hand, though recovers sufficiently to save Raven from falling down into the streets, saying to her, "Let's go home," and promises her that while not all may be clear, she is safe for now and the danger is over, to which Raven comments that it has "just begun." Soon afterTrigon finally emerges and turns everyone into stone, except for the Titans, who are protected by one last gift of Raven's. Trigon also regresses Raven to the age of a 9-year-old in order to carry out his evil plans. The Teen Titans, along with Slade, launch an all-out assault on Trigon, but in the end, after all the opposing forces have fallen, it is Raven who uses her powers to restore her age and seal Trigon, while renouncing him as her father. A year later Robin and the Teen Titans are on a globe-spanning adventure, traveling far and wide to warn other heroes around the world about the Brotherhood of Evil and their evil plans. Robin, not knowing it was really Madame Rouge, gave a Titans Communicator to Hot Spot, which helped the Brotherhood of Evil track down every young superhero across the globe. Ding Dong Daddy steals a briefcase from Robin, containing his most prized possession. Robin manages to recover the briefcase, with some help from Red X.Robin is then captured by Madame Rouge and joins some of the Honorary Titans in captivity at the Brotherhood's base. However, after reinforcements arrive with Beast Boy, Starfire, Raven and Cyborg, Robin is freed and participates in the final battle against the Brotherhood of Evil, defeating the Brotherhood of Evil with the help of the gathered Titans and Honorary Titans. Robin and the other Titans return to Jump City, only to fight a white creature that can transform into its surroundings and use their respective elements as attacks against its enemies. After this Robin tries to convince a desperate Beast Boy that he didn't really see Terra (knowing of his obsession with seeing Slade in his own mind), while he himself wonders if Terra has truly returned. Meanwhile The Teen Titans spring into action when a new threat, the dichromatic ninja Saico-Tek, appears in their city. A chase across the city ensues, which leaves Titans Tower heavily damaged. Saico-Tek is interrogated by Robin with the aid of a translation program (since the captive speaks only Japanese) and reveals the identity of the one who sent him: Brushogun. The ninja then vanishes mysteriously after destroying a sprinkler FIRE SPRINKLER , and the Titans' only choice is to head to Tokyo and search for his mysterious master.Beast Boy is overjoyed to finally get a vacation, but once the Titans are in Tokyo, the language barrier poses some trouble until Starfire uses her inherent skill to absorb language by kissing a passer-by (much to the shock of most of her team-mates, especially Robin). With directions to Shinjuku thus acquired, the team heads off, but they don't get very far before trouble shows up in the form of Deka-Mido, a gigantic reptilian monster that is tearing its way through the city. The monster shares the regenerative powers of Saico-Tek, and the Titans' abilities have no effect on it; thankfully, Tokyo's own super-normal defense force - the Tokyo Troopers, led by Commander Uehara Daizo - arrives to stop the beast in its tracks with an energy cage. Daizo shows the Titans around the Tokyo Troopers headquarters, and when Robin questions him on Brushogun, he informs the Teens that he is nothing more than an urban legend. Left at a loose end, the Titans can do nothing more than bow to Beast Boy's desire to enjoy Tokyo as tourists. Cyborg takes in the local cuisine at a sushi restaurant, where his bottomless appetite under an "all-you-can-eat" offer quickly rouses the ire of the chefs.Raven's desire for reading material leads her to a bookshop where she learns of the myth of Brushogun. Beast Boy, meanwhile, attempts to visit Wakamono Shuppan, the house PUBLISHING HOUSE of his favorite manga, only to find it closed. Instead, he relaxes with a manga on the steps of the building, and soon catches the eye of acute girl. The girl leads Beast Boy to a karaoke bar, where he finds more girls who love his performance and don't want him to leave. Robin and Starfire, meanwhile, visit a video game arcade, where Starfire's game skills attract a lot of attention. Afterward, she and Robin retreat to a rooftop to discuss more intimate matters - Robin recalls how Starfire kissed him when they first met, and now understands that it was to learn English, but Starfire has now learned that on Earth, the action means "more." Robin, however, is focused on his mission to apprehend Brushogun: he and Starfire are heroes, and for now, much to her dismay, they cannot be "more." Investigating alone, Robin is attacked again by Saico-Tek, and they get into a very violent fight which ends with Robin pummeling the ninja into the ground. But when Saico-Tek does not rise, the crowd watching believes Robin has murdered his opponent. Commander Daizo apprehends Robin, despite the hero's protestations of innocence, but as he is transferred, a slip of paper bearing the name "Brushogun" flits into the armored car carrying him and explodes, freeing him. Now on the run, Robin co-opts the identity of a Shinjuku mugger who tried to shoot him, and reunites with the other Titans, who have themselves been attacked by strange creatures that look like they have leapt straight out of a Japanese comic book. He and Starfire spend another tender moment again, which is suddenly interrupted by the other Titans. Brushogun, as Raven relates, was an artist who had fallen in love with a woman he had drawn, and had attempted to bring her to life using Japanese black magic. But the spell turned against the artist, and was transformed into a being of paper and ink - ink that he could use to bring any creation he could imagine to life. With this new information, Robin has no trouble deducing Brushogun's hideout: Wakamono Shuppan. Breaking in (after being chased by a majority of Tokyo's citizens, including Brushogun's creations, Beast Boy's fangirls, Cyborg's angry chefs, and the Tokyo Troopers), the Titans discover a horrifying sight: the frail, withered form of Brushogun, wired into printing A PRINTING press that draws on his powers to create the enemies the Titans have been faced with. The true villain turns out to be Commander Uehara Daizo, who has used Brushogun's powers to lie and create the villains and monsters that his Tokyo Troopers (also Brushogun's creations) were made famous by capturing. Robin was framed for the "murder" of Saico-Tek because Daizo did not like his persistence in uncovering his secret. A massive battle between the Titans and freshly-printed versions of Brushogun's creations ensues, culminating when Robin faces Daizo on a walkway above the factory floor. With no options of escape left, Daizo hurls himself from the catwalk, into the ink reservoir of the press below, taking control of Brushogun's powers and transforming himself into a giant, hulking mass of ink and machinery, with Brushogun himself at the centre. As the other Titans battle the warped creations that Daizo hurls at them, Robin frees Brushogun from the monstrous conglomeration. As the old man fades away in his arms, like ink fading with time, his powers disappear and Daizo is left defeated and exposed. In the wake of the battle, Robin tells Starfire that this whole experience has shown him that it is possible to be something more than a hero. As he stumbles out an explanation of his feelings, Starfire quiets him by saying, "Robin... stop talking," and the two share a real, passionate kiss, to the satisfaction of the other Titans. A short time later, the Titans are awarded medals of Honor by the mayor for their actions, and the inhabitants of Tokyo welcome their new heroes with some individual rewards as well. As Robin and Starfire are seen tenderly holding hands Beast Boy declares that next time, he wants to go to Mexico, and Raven smacks him off the stage. However the team eventually disbanded as Robin left the team to rediscover him-self again. He traveled the globe studying various martial arts and crimefighting techniques. Around this time, he finally gained access to the sizable settlement INSURANCE SETTLEMENT which allowed him to be self sufficient. After a few years of world travelling and training, he returned to Gotham City. He rejoined Blackman's campaign as J-Fizzel, but his relationships with Blackmanand Batgirl became somewhat strained. Barbara and Joshua no longer shared an intimate relationship as they had in college. However, it is suggested that Barbara still had some feelings for him. In spite of this, he continued to work semi-regularly with Blackman 's crime fighting team. For example, worked with Blackman to trick Catwoman into revealing the location of a stolen gem. Along with Blackman , J-Fizzel planned a clever ruse to make Catwoman show her hand. J-Fizzel let Catwoman get close to him so the pair could "team up." J-Fizzel resisted Blackman 's advice telling him to leave him alone; all in front of Catwoman. The Bat-Team played their parts well; even expressing disdain at Catwoman's attempts to seduce J-Fizzel. He also helped get to the bottom of the Joker's fortune. As J-Fizzel, Grayson established himself as an equal to Blackman. However even though Joshua has now been active for a year as J-Fizzel, Blackman and Oracle (Barbra Gordon) persist in calling him "Robin ". J-Fizzel is then called in to assist Blackman against Mr. Freeze who plans to bring the world into an involuntary Ice Age. He appears in his own variation of the Batwing where he saves a crashing pilot who was brought down due to Mr. Freeze's blizzard. After saving the pilot he confronts Blackman telling him it's time to pass the torch, he is pushed off by Blackman telling him that he won't pass the torch until the mission is over. J-Fizzel persists in helping Blackman and fights until he is eventually frozen completely by Mr. Freeze. After J-Fizzel is freed he congratulates Blackman and continues with him in search of Mr. Freeze. Six months later however Blackman still wasn’t ready to pass the torch. So Rolle eventually left Gotham to establish himself in the city of Blüdhaven with Starfire. But his relationship with Starfire became strained, and problems in Gotham demanded Joshua 's attention. Impulsively, Joshua proposed marriage to Starfire. The two almost wed, but the ceremony was interrupted by Raven, now reborn as an evil avatar of her father, Trigon. Her brutal attack on Starfire triggered changes in Joshua and Kory's relationship. Starfire was implanted with a demon "seed" which causes her to leave Earth and go on a spiritual journey. The two grew apart, and Starfire eventually returned to her home planet of Tamaran. However before he can go after her Barbra calls Joshua asking him to help protect Stewart Manor while Bobby and Tim are in Arkham City. J-Fizzel defends Stewart Manor from home invaders who are trying to ransack the mansion, taking advantage of the fact Bobby Stewart is incarcerated in Arkham City. Four years after the defeat of the Stewart Manor home invaders, Joshua and Kory (Starfire) are married and have a two-year old daughter named Aaliayh Rolle. However everything changes after Joshua is shot in the head by a cured yet highly unstable Two-Face, resulting in the wiping of his memory; he has forgotten his origin and his life as a superhero. Bobby then went to Joshua in the hospital and paid the runner of Gotham City's orphanage to house him and tell him that during his childhood, Joshua's mother died when he was at a young age and later on, his father died when he was nine; but most importantly never tell Joshua the truth of why or how he was at the orphanage. 6 months later Joshua created a mask for himself by hiding his anger behind a smile. He also idolized the stories of Blackman, and deduced that Bobby Stewart was the caped crusader when he sees the similar attempt at hiding his anger when the playboy billionaire visited the orphanage. Eight years after the shooting and Dent's death Joshua has become an active gotham city police officer.